When and How I Overcame Adveristy by Thomas
Thomas's entry into Varsity Tutor's May 2022 scholarship contest
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When and How I Overcame Adveristy by Thomas - May 2022 Scholarship Essay
Probably the most notable time in my life where I encountered adversity was during the time period from 2020 to 2021, when the world went into lockdown during the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the events that followed and/or were made worse by that situation. The most important skill that helped me along the way was my proactivity, leading to an ability to entertain myself, which as you’ll see, was a crucial part of maintaining my spirits.
2020 and the greater part of 2021 were a hard time for a lot of people. In fact, it was probably a hard time for almost everyone. The COVID-19 pandemic meant that most people could not interact with each other in person, and during the earlier stages most people couldn’t leave their houses, with the exception of emergencies and those who had essential jobs. For me, personally, it meant I couldn’t connect with my friends and my schoolwork in as meaningful ways as before. I didn’t exactly have a thriving social life beforehand, but it was always nice to see my friends and acquaintances in person. With the isolation of quarantine, I couldn’t have that anymore. I was very fortunate to be quarantined with my close family, so I wasn’t completely devoid of human contact, but I still felt the effects of “cabin fever” and of isolation. Even without that, school and extracurricular activities before the pandemic took up almost all of my time. Now, I was finding that with no extracurriculars and heavily reduced school time, I had a lot of spare time on my hands. Isolation and boredom set in, and I likely would have fallen into some form of depression, as I saw many of my peers do.
However, I was able to avoid that fate by finding things to do and to make me feel productive. I started by organizing what schoolwork I had already into a much more organized schedule. Then, I spent time working on several hobbies, including reading, writing, drawing, and filmmaking. That final hobby is where I managed to secure a solution. I turned my filmmaking hobby into an online presence, which greatly helped with isolation. I had found that I could keep in contact with my close friends through the internet but uploading the products of my filmmaking ventures online attracted an audience, one that would respond to my videos and would allow me to respond back. It helped incredibly with my own isolation and helped keep my spirits up throughout the worst of the pandemic.
In conclusion, my drive to be proactive and skill for productivity helped me find a way to temporarily fulfill the needs and wants I had through an intense time of isolation.